Yes, yes I am a day late with this and I do apologize to everyone who swarmed my page last night looking for the latest on The Winnipeg Jets logo saga. The wait is over my friends and the Jets are indeed ready to fly high and proud with a new corporate identity.

The new logo borrows highly from the Royal Canadian Air Force insignia that has graced our fighter planes for over the last half century. Wanting something brand new and not reliant on the Winnipeg Jets logos of old was critical Mark Chipman explained in the launch ceremony. The new logo dates back to the 1948 RCAF Flyers Hockey Team, a team cobbled together to compete in the Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Our air force players competed as amateurs and brought home the Gold Medal with a victory over home team Switzerland and an edge in goals over second place Czechoslovakia.

The evolution of the new Winnipeg Jets logo (True North Sports and Entertainment)

The new logo also works in the relationship the City of Winnipeg has with its armed forces here in Manitoba; home to 17 Wing. The Jets logo features a stylized CF-18 fighter jet over the bright red maple leaf, while the side patches call to mind a flight captain’s wings. All sporting teams here incorporate an armed forces day into their game schedules and Chipman’s AHL Manitoba Moose were no different. Their armed forces game day sweaters also paid tribute to the RCAF and the sacrifices they made.

Centre Crest of the Jets Sweater (True North Sports and Entertainment)

This new logo brings all of those traditions together while also incorporating a nod to the True North Enterprises logo of a stylized compass pointing due north.

Side crests and alternate name designs. (True North Sports and Entertainment)

I must admit that I wasn’t personally too thrilled to see the new design, I thought that it borrowed from the military roundel too closely but after having a night to sleep on the new motif and the reasons for the design I think that the city is more than ready to get our boots polished up, our brass shined and welcome this new team and its new identity to the city and province.

A CF-18 Fighter ready for battle (True North Sports and Entertainment)

Let’s get ready to hit those afterburners and go supersonic. After all these are our Winnipeg Jets!

I kinda like the new logo. FB chatter suggested a number of my friends thought it was lame, but it’s clean and better that some other logos I’ve seen (Canucks…boring!). I dig the font too…very stylized!

Actually it’s kind of grown on me now, at first I didn’t really know what to think of it but now I kinda like it. All I know for sure is that sales of the new merchandise (hats and t-shirts) have people waiting in line at the MTS Centre for hours at a time. The Jets Gear store was scheduled to be open today (Sunday) but they may be forced to close due to a complete sell out of stock.